Bewildered by That Rarest of Sightings in Washington: Bipartisanship

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President Trump, frustrated by the inability of the Republican-controlled Congress to deliver him the victories he so craves, has decided to shop elsewhere and work with Democrats.CreditTom Brenner/The New York Times

That’s why Washington has seemed so perplexed over the past 10 days. An unexpected outbreak of cooperation between President Trump and the two top congressional Democrats has upended the established order and left lawmakers grasping to divine the significance, especially Republicans who saw themselves as a strong ruling majority.

“You’ve got an unconventional president who is not limited to what the conventions of political behavior are among office holders,” said Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican. “He is shaking things up.”

For much of the preceding two presidencies and the beginning of this one, the parties have largely gone their separate ways, typically finding compromise only in emergencies and the need to renew popular expiring legislation. Common ground has been very uncommon.

Now Mr. Trump, frustrated by the inability of the Republican-controlled Congress to deliver him the victories he so craves, has decided to shop elsewhere.

“I’m a Republican through and through,” the president told reporters as he returned from Florida aboard Air Force One, “but I’m also finding that sometimes to get things through, it’s not working that way.”

Some Republicans seemed to be left dazed by the fact that Mr. Trump was willing to reach a general agreement with Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader, and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, her Senate counterpart, on allowing undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children to remain, while not receiving a commitment for a border wall in exchange.

Representative Gary Palmer, Republican of Alabama, spoke for many when he expressed incredulity that Mr. Trump had reached a deal that compromised on one of his key campaign pledges.

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Mixed messages, backtracking and a bit of verbal combat after a bipartisan meeting between President Trump and Democratic Party leaders have added confusion to the fate of DACA. Three New York Times reporters, Maggie Haberman, Peter Baker, and Glenn Thrush, explain what happened.Published OnSept. 15, 2017

“I’d be shocked that the president made a deal that said that there wouldn’t be a wall,” Mr. Palmer said.

Mr. Trump said he still intended to push for the wall, and Republicans sought to minimize the depth of his agreement with the opposition. But there was no escaping the fact that twice in a week’s time Mr. Trump embraced the top Democrats while keeping his supposed Republican allies well at arm’s length.

Given turnover on Capitol Hill, many lawmakers simply haven’t experienced this dynamic, in which the president of one party tries to work amicably with leaders of the other. And the chaos has been intensified by the fact that the two sides have given slightly different versions of events — a development usually avoided when one party or the other strictly controls the message.

The talks between Mr. Trump and the Democrats haven’t been the only tentative stabs at bipartisanship. Republicans and Democrats on the Senate health committee have been meeting to try to work out a consensus way to shore up the struggling health insurance exchanges. Turnout has been strong and the talks productive, participants said.

“We had more than 60 senators who came to either the meeting with the witnesses before the hearing or the hearing itself and engage in a serious discussion,” said Senator Lamar Alexander, the Tennessee Republican who leads the committee. “I haven’t seen anything like that since I came to the Senate 15 years ago.”

Knocked off balance, Republicans say they really have no choice but to find a way to navigate within the president’s new architecture. They say it would have been more truly bipartisan had Mr. Trump invited Republican leaders to join him at the dinner table with the Democrats. And they don’t expect all that many occasions when Mr. Trump and Democrats are able to come together.

Senator Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican and majority leader, said that on most topics, Mr. Trump was still more naturally aligned with Republicans.

“There’s nothing inherently wrong with having Democrats support you from time to time,” Mr. McConnell said in an interview. “But I still am very comfortable with where the president is on most policy matters.”

Ms. Pelosi, despite her advances with Mr. Trump on a spending deal and an effort to protect the so-called Dreamers, agreed that at the moment “it’s a one-by-one thing” that could conceivably grow into more.

“I do think that, one by one, you establish more understanding of whether, in the president’s case, understanding of the legislative process, and on our part, what some of his priorities might be, as we go forward,” she told reporters.

Without some dramatic ideological shift, many Democrats say it is hard to see the party lining up behind an administration-backed tax cut plan — the top current Republican priority — that will enact substantial tax reductions for affluent Americans.

“The idea that he is not interested in giving stuff to the wealthy is about as plausible as my playing in the N.B.A. next year,” said Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the senior Democrat on the Finance Committee.

Even with all the current focus on bipartisanship, there is plenty of partisan friction to go around. Senate Republicans seem to be building up to one last push to force through repeal of the Affordable Care Act before their authority to do so on a simple majority vote expires at the end of the month. The Senate also faces a lineup of conservative judicial nominations likely to divide the parties.

Still, Mr. Alexander sees progress, and he recalled a bit of advice from Howard Baker, a former Senate Republican leader from Tennessee and a mentor to Mr. Alexander.

“Senator Baker used to say, the other fellow might be right,” he recounted. “We have kind of lost the capacity to understand that.”

That lost capacity is another factor contributing to the feeling of bewilderment in Washington at the moment.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A20 of the New York edition with the headline: Bewildered by That Rarest of Sightings in the Capital: Bipartisanship. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe